What is mariology?: - in theory and practice

GLOSSARY

1. INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this book is to show that Mariology - the doctrine of the Virgin Mary - can be used throughout life by all people everywhere. Mary is a common iconic figure uniting Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Christianity with Islam. Nowhere is there written more about the Virgin Mary than in the Qur'an, and although Muslims usually have a slightly different picture of the Blessed Virgin, she is however one of the most significant points of contact between Islam and Christianity.

Mary is a figure that unites people. She is in contrast to the theology seeking to create division and hostility between religions, because we do not need more division and conflict. Therefore there is a reason to hope that interest in the Virgin Mary and her role in the history of culture as well as in our individual and joint Spirituality will continue to grow. It is very much needed.

Mariology is about the world, and the world is full of problems and issues that people deal with. These problems can often shed light on this in a constructive way with the help of Mariology's set of values and dynamics that the reader will be presented with in this book. What Mariology is particularly good at, is uniting the spiritual with the practical aspect of life. It's about getting ethics, emotions and finances to make ends meet and to overcome the differences between the material and the spiritual.

Mariology is not an alternative to this world, it is a bridge that unites this world with a higher reality that all can enjoy, if they wish, Mariology is therefore in conflict with the Lutheran idea of the two regiments and it serves as an inspiration especially in four key areas, which we call the four dynamics: will, knowledge, ethics and spirituality.

I have made the Mariological model of the four dynamics with inspiration from the way the Christian church and the arts have used the Mary figure throughout history. The starting point is the fact that when cultural history, throughout two thousand years has found it interesting to portray Mary with precisely those characteristics she has, it is because these assets are important for humans.

The story about Mary has always been used to educate children and to inspire adults who were unsure if they could live up to their own ideals. Mariology is a means of upbringing and a method in which to see themselves. But it is also a tool to change humanity, because we are never done evolving. We can always learn something more.

Mariology is universal. It has existed from the beginning of time and will continue to exist till the end of time. It is not restricted to one religion and cannot be used to argue that there is one particular book or one particular theology that leads people to heaven, while all the others lead to damnation. Some people may believe that God has arranged the world this way. But he has not. Not the God I believe in anyway.

The purpose of Mariology is clear. It's about bringing people to salvation, and to give them a taste of heaven. Salvation means emancipation, and heaven begins in the life we live here and now. Mariology is a tool, and this book contains a series of examples of how this tool can be used. I am certain that you can even find some more useful ways. But remember that Mary's power and God's will go through your head and your hands. Mary loves you, Mary calls you and Mary inspires you. But Mary does not live your life for you. You are responsible for your own future.

Let me end this introduction by stating that I know the translation from Danish to English is far from perfect. But I did not have the time and the money to make it any better, so - dear reader - I ask for your forgiveness. I think the book is readable, and that is the most important thing.

Jakob Munck

2. WHAT IS MARIOLOGY?

Mariology is an ideology, a spirituality, a worldview and human perception, which is inspired by the biggest icon and greatest ideal, we know from European cultural history: Virgin Mary.

Mariology is not a religion and it is not something to be believed in. In fact one can use Mariology and be successful with it without believing in anything. But the prerequisite is of course, to follow the ideals - the four dynamics - that the Mariological model is based upon. Mariology contains no forms of magic. It only works if you use it.

The four dynamics, which can also be called principles or axioms for how a person should live are: will, knowledge, ethics and spirituality. Mary is our ideal and these properties are intended to be a concentrated version of the Virgin Mary’s own properties. They are the following:

Will

There are three factors that determine a person's behavior: nature, nurture and free will. The free will is - in Mariology - actually free and the expression does not just concern a certain form of conditioning (programmed control), where Man has learned to say: I have free will. Some psychologists and biologists think that this is how Man functions, but the supporters of the Virgin Mary think otherwise. No matter what a person says, this person has free will and thereby an opportunity to change his life. And with this follows a moral responsibility, not just to oneself but to others as well.

It is important to understand that free will is dependent on information. The person, who chooses to take a vacation in Spain, has had a choice between different destinations and he has not been forced to choose Spain in particular. It is an expression of his own choice that he chooses to go to Spain; it is not a coincidence. The decision of free will is not random. The man has a reason for choosing this country. It could be because the prices are low, the weather is nice or that he knows someone who has been there before. His free will is thereby affected by information and by his rational reflections. He acted in his own best interest and that of his family. He made a choice based on free will but he also acted rationally.

The decisions based on free will are determined by the knowledge of the individual person and therefore it is not difficult to understand, that you can influence a person by controlling the information he receives. This is the content of mass psychology that we see in the advertising industry. That is what happens in the hateful ideological atmosphere, when politicians prepare for war. The first part of a war-campaign is always to spread hatred towards the opponent and portraying its leader as a bad person. When this is accomplished, the citizens of the country preparing for war, can more easily use their free will to make dramatic decisions, for example to risk their own lives in a war.

Mariology is in contrast to what is usually meant by the term psychology, at least if this notion is defined in such a way as is done in the highly-recognized Scandinavian Publishing Company Gyldendal’s Large Encyclopedia (2013).

It states that psychology is:

"The teachings or science of an organism’s psyche or on the mental life phenomena as reflected in people's thoughts, feelings, needs, memories, attitudes, imagination, dreams, action, behavior and practical activities as well as the biological and cultural conditions and the civic and social influences and conditions of these phenomena"

Note that this definition does not mention a word about free will, but on the other hand argues that human thoughts, feelings and actions are related to their biological basis and cultural conditions. That means the same thing as one usually reads in more truncated definitions of psychology, where this is defined as:

the science of human thought and behavior, as determined by their heredity and environment.

However this definition is wrong. It states nothing about free will. Man is seen as a biological machine and this does not comply with reality.

What separates Mariology from psychology is that psychology does not recognize the objective existence of Man's free will. If you ask a psychologist he will most likely say that he personally believes in the free will. But the science that he deals with sadly does not. Therefore free will is not mentioned in Gyldendal’s definition of psychology. It is not an oversight or an accident; it is an expression of psychology's wish to become a science and in science free will does not fit in, because it cannot be predicted.

Thereby Man is - according to psychology - a form of biological machine, whose actions are determined by its genes and the social influences to which it has been subjected. It is therefore the study of these objective factors that is psychology's task, because it is attempting to use the same method that is used in physics. And in physics there is no free will, therefore the psychologists do not think that it exists in psychology either. You can talk about it and pretend that it exists. But actually it does not exist.

Therefore we called this so-called psychology robot psychology. This psychology deals with robot people who - luckily - only exist in the dreams of researchers and the imagination of psychologists. Not in reality.

It has to be confessed that there are many types of psychology and I cannot rule out that there are psychologies that both in theory and in practice, believe in free will. But this is in individual cases, so it does not belong in the dominant teachings. Therefore they are not represented in Gyldendal’s definition because they are only a minority.

When we Mariologists call deterministic psychology robotpsychology, it is because it portrays humans as being robots. If the robot does not do what its owner wants, it must be repaired. And it is exactly this task for which psychologists are hired in the modern welfare society, where fewer still believe in God and free will, but where the belief in psychology is bigger than ever before. Everybody is interested in psychology as it is viewed as the solution to all kinds of problems. Many people believe that psychology has the recipe to create better people, but it does not. Psychology as defined by Gyldendal is a teaching of robots. It is about programming people in a new way and therefore one of the most popular surges in modern psychology is so-called Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). It cannot be put more clearly.

Does free will exist?

I have to admit that there is no scientific proof that free will exists. But on the other hand, there is also no proof that it does not exist. Free will is in itself in contradiction to the scientific way of thinking because in science all phenomena have a purpose and thereby all human thought and action also has a purpose, and this purpose has a previous purpose and so on. It is called serial causality. There is an infinite chain of cause and effect, and science is always trying to find the link between cause and effect.

In physics it is about finding out why the atoms move as they do, in astronomy it is about finding out how the universe was created, and in psychology it is about finding out why a person acts as he or she does. In all areas there is a search for objective reasons, because we are certain that they exist. The problem is that they do not always exist when it comes to people.

In Mariology the baseline is not to execute empirical science, and the purpose of furthering the Mariological way of thinking is not to compete with psychologists, or to invent a better psychology than the one others have invented. The purpose of Mariology is to teach people to understand themselves and others in a better way and to use this understanding to create change, so that people become healthier, more productive and happier. The fundamental tool to create this change is the belief in Man’s own free will.

In Mariology it is fundamental for the true image of Man to have free will. If Man did not have free will, he would not have a moral responsibility for his own actions and thereby there would be no difference between good and evil. This was the conclusion Martin Luther came to in his book On the Bondage of Will (De servo arbitrio) from 1525 and Lutheran determinism harmonizes well with modern genetic-based psychology and its claim that you can find genes for everything, including crime, political opinions, sexual preferences and marital happiness.

According to robot psychology's and biology's notions, the difference between people is not caused by people making different decisions that have different effect on their lives. The differences are congenital and cannot be changed. Therefore people have no responsibility as to how their life unfolds and in the ideal society all citizens are therefore equal no matter who they are and what they have accomplished. No one is responsible for anything and therefore everyone should be treated the same. They attempt to create a paradise for robots and that is the philosophy that is behind the political system in Denmark (and the other Scandinavian-Lutheran countries) today. Every politician will deny that this is the case but do not criticize them for it. They are ‘lying’ because they do not know what else to do. They themselves are robots!

Mariology is not the same as Catholic faith but it is not the same as Lutheran faith either. The crucial thing for the Mariologist’s way of viewing people is that man has free will and we thereby have a responsibility for our own actions. We are capable of doing good or bad and we are the ones who choose. In this context, if God does not exist then it is not important but if he does exist, let us hope that he judges us based on what we have chosen to do with our free will and not what we have been forced to do. If Lutheran faith and robot psychology are true, then we will all end up in hell and hell starts now. Therefore Luther developed his teaching of the two regiments where it is stated that God lives in his own regiment and that people live in an entirely different regiment where Satan rules. It is this world that robot psychology is developed to serve us and it does the job well.

Robot psychology sees humans as a biological machine and therefor you will not here psychologists talk about the term spirit in any other context other than as an expression of Man's subjective experience of his own identity. According to robot psychology, the existence of a human spirit is as unlikely as the existence of free will. Robots do not have a spirit or a free will and therefore therapeutic psychologists will always take as their starting point, the attempt to change Man's environment, give them education, new friends, a new job and new social relations. Because humans are, according to this teaching, nothing more than a product of their heritage and surroundings. And heritage cannot be changed.

The differences between Mariology and (robot-) psychology have consequences in all aspects. In Mariology there are for example, wide boundaries for what is considered normal. Mariology does not focus on mental illnesses, which according to Mariology, often are a rational form of behavior, viewed from the patients viewpoint. Mary's son Jesus was considered insane (Marc 3:31) and if he had lived today, he would most likely be in an institution.

However mental illnesses can disappear as fast as they occur. When the patient no longer has an advantage in being sick, their symptoms disappear. This happens for example, during times of war where the resources for the psychiatric sector are cut and it is necessary to act rationally in order to survive. We know that this leads to the number of mental patients dropping close to zero.

Seen from Mariology's perspective, the so-called mental illness, behavioral issue or criminal behavior, can in many cases be eliminated through a simple decision based on will, which the patient can take if he sees a rational reason to do so.

If the life he is offered as a healthy person is better than what he is offered when sick, then the possibility for him to get well is significantly bigger. This is because mental illness is in most cases a choice and so is healing. Those who believe in the existence of free will, will to a greater extent give free will a practical meaning and that is exactly to what Mariology aspires. Not to win a theoretical discussion against robot psychology, but because the belief in the reality of the free will is the gateway to change. It is about changing closed minds to accept free will and thereby changing robots into human beings. That is the purpose of Mariology and thereby also of this book.

Knowledge

The key to change is knowledge. Free will cannot exist if it is not bound in knowledge, because the will demands that there are options from which to choose. And you must have knowledge about all of your options. Otherwise free will is an illusion.

If you wish to change human behavior, it is not about - as some psychologists believe - digging into a person's unconscious needs and tendencies but about dealing with what a person has learned and believes to be real. Behavior is always rational and to change a person's behavior, you have to give the person new opportunities or new information about the options he already has.

Knowledge is therefore the key to both the good and the bad. If you wish to change your life, you have to change your knowledge about what has led you to your current lifestyle. New knowledge leads to new behavior, if this knowledge is real. If it is just a repetition of what you already know, it has no effect.

Change demands new knowledge and it can be difficult to replace the old knowledge with the new, because the old knowledge can be very deeply rooted and based on real or imaginary experiences.

Learning new knowledge is - in theory - always possible and when people acquire new knowledge they will automatically change. The art of dealing with people